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Reader Comments and Retorts

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Kind of funny how Oakland and Detroit, the two contending teams who made the biggest splash on Deadline Day, have played pretty mediocre baseball in the two weeks since. Conversely, KC, a team who sat pat at the deadline, have really switched it on over the same span. Baseball is a weird game.

worry about the fact that Scott Kazmir’s strikeout rate since the All-Star break is 13 percent, 10 points lower than it was in the first half, or that Jason Hammel has one quality start in seven tries as an Athletic. Or that Jeff Samardzija’s run of greatness extends no further back than this season.

Losing Jed Lowrie to the DL isn’t something you’d normally associate with hurting your defense, but the problem it created is that it moved Eric Sogard from a position he plays well at second base (averaging plus-9 Defensive Runs Saved per season on his career) to a position he doesn’t at short (minus-14 career). Exacerbating that loss is that Alberto Callaspo has had to become an every-day player at second... And with Kazmir and Hammel looking so hittable, you can bet a worse infield defense is hurting.

And just stop with Sam Fuld already. The guy’s well-spoken, a great interview and a decent fielder, but c’mon now, he’s sabermetrics’ answer to Willie Bloomquist.

Now, I know, this is where we can cite all sorts of happy stats to warm A’s fans’ hearts, like their huge run differential or their expected record, which is six games better (79-43) than where they’re actually at (73-49)... a big chunk of the A’s run differential belongs to early-season blowout wins that this lineup hasn’t been cranking out of late, as well as that stack of close losses that you can blame on the early-season mistake of having Jim Johnson as their closer... this team is a significantly different collection of players than that which stacked up that run differential in the first place just a few short months ago... The A’s relative run differential is shrinking, and even with Lester and Samardzija and Gray going strong, it’s probably going to shrink more.

Of course, both authors ultimately agree that one should "worry" but not "panic". (It remains unclear why either author finds the reader's level of worry to be worthy of such concern.)